I have been wondering that too, Diana. I have been wondering how so many humans have become this way. It is not how we are born. Look at a baby. They are all perfect. When my son was born, someone said to me that babies are born perfect and then the rest of their lives, we spend trying to ruin them. We teach them that money trumps all: nature, justice, kindness to others. How do we stop this?
Diana, unfortunately 'frustrated,hungry,homeless' are not features of only 'Western civilizations' - it is present in many civilizations/cultures.
On the 'isolated' thing, I tend to agree with you (based on my personal experience of living in several cultures - but then again, it could be just my personality).
You're definitely right about that. India began its neoliberal journey in the early 90s (about the same time as when the Cold War ended and the dissolution of the Soviet Union). Russia too was badly impacted by Western neoliberal Capitalism.
Doesn't that title belong to Israel and its apartheid state and the treatment of the indigenous population of Palestine, while lying about its ancestry in order to build towards its world rule?
If anyone place deserves tgat distinction, surely it's zionist Israel?
Apartheid inequality is different from non-apartheid inequality. For example, even the U.S. has a form of apartheid inequality (you have likely heard the term Jim Crow South). Same in the case of apartheid South Africa.
The inequality in India is across the board (all religions/peoples) and is based on the system of neoliberal capitalism (not racism). There has always been inequality in India (eg. caste system, dalits, and more recently Muslims and immigrants), but ever since Modi (and his BJP party) came into power, inequality in the country has ramped up significantly.
Ohhhh right the wonderful western civilization that gives us new iPhone models every year for a small price of producing constant wars, killing millions, and destroying Earth while bringing misery to all. No human system will ever be perfect but western civilization is pure evil.
I don’t why I’m wasting my time arguing with idiots on Substack, but here goes anyway … You do realise (or maybe you don’t) that Western civilisation has a 10,000 year history during which time it has interacted with and been influenced by many other civilisations?
You seem to be confusing “capitalism” with “Western civilisation”.
Many better human systems existed but the aggressive genocidal evil western system destroyed them in its pursuit of world dominance and insatiable materialism.
Who is "we"? The workers of the West have been and are oppressed too. It is the capitalist ruling class that has despoiled the planet. To blame the oppressed as well as the oppressers, to ignore the realities of class exploitation, only furthers confusion and despair. Liberalism has failed. The goal of Socialism is the liberation of the global working class. That is worth saving indeed.
Comrade... You can't save something you've never had. There has never been a liberated global working class, and no government of the west is socialist. So while your position is valid, it's not an argument against Johnstone's point so much as it is an exposition of what you'd like to replace our current western civilization with.
Western philosophy is unfortunately not the only civilization that needs a complete overhaul of its dysfunctional issues. The malaise is an international condition and can be readily ldentified by the absolute international silence of the Gaza genocide.
At present, there are about 12,000 nuclear warheads awaiting launching orders., yet, if anyone reading these posts has even mentioned the greatest threat ever faced by our species in the past year, hats off to you because the international silence is absolute.
“This civilization is genocidal. Ecocidal. Omnicidal. Imperialist. Racist. Dehumanizing. Degrading. Dystopian. Emotionally stunted. Culturally vapid. Spiritually impoverished.” Three more: Supremacist, Colonial, and therefore apartheid(al). The first makes the last two impossible to confess. “I can’t be narcissistic, I am perfect.” THE Judaeo Christian motto.
I was just thinking today that there is an ethic on the part of rightwing Christians (and probably Zionist Jews) in which they equate their religious affiliation with virtue, and thus think they needn't bother about morality.
They needn’t be rightwing nor zionist. The assumption being exposed right now is that Judaeo Christianity is the apex, the best of the best. But London Bridge is falling down…. all at once.
I have trouble seeing zionist Jews as anything much when their rabbis are telling them rape of children is a blessing - as long as the child has had their third birthday - how very generous told off that long to pierce that little body by an adult male's penis, when we know that rape at any age is torture - ask any adult female who has been raped, if she thought rape a blessing or a curse, especially when it was multiple heinous bastards enjoying the act?
Western civilization, as represented by Voltaire and the finest minds of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, is definitely worth saving..It's the best this planet has produced...There is no substitute...but the cracks that started appearing in the late 19th and were depicted by writers like Dostoevsky, Kafka, Camus and Chesterton have mutated into an oligarchy that needs perpetual war to flourish...Either we get rid of that oligarchy and its promoters, or they will s destroy civilization as we know it and replace it with tech feudalism....
Ever heard of Genghis Khan, the Huns, the Muslim invasions, the Turks, American Indian tribes slaughtering each other and taking territory... This is **human** history, these are **human** failings, not simply "western" or "white" failings ... You dumb fucks.
Unable to construct a coherent sentence, let alone an argument, a list of "whatabouts" is spewed out, followed by an insult, usually with a "fuck" thrown in.
I wasn't born until 1940, so didn't hear him say it when it was apparently said, however I remember quite well seeing it on an old Pathe News item where he said, it and it stuck in my mind. And I do not mean from the film after his death. It was about when he visited the textile companies and the workers cheered him on.
I was going to reply to your previous post about the elites vs the working classes being a romanticised and out-dated concept. But you seem to be rightly including us all; the enormous western middle classes, we also fly around (if only on commercial flights) and surf on the labour of the serfs.
The modern day serfs or working classes, who work in shops, delivery, slaughter houses, meat packing and anything that can't be automated, are First Nation people in the colonies, immigrants to Western countries from formerly colonised and stolen from countries, and factory workers in neo-colonised countries where unions are suppressed to keep them poor and goods cheap.
Opposing capitalism can't be separated from opposing colonisation.
The rise of the middle classes in the Global Majority is squeezing the western middle class but we still have pretty luxurious lives.
A revolution would involve decolonisation and a massive decline in the Western economy and the material wealth of the middle class. We may protest about Palestine but our inevitable impoverishment with the growth of mulitpolarity isn't going to be so popular.
The multipolar world without Western civilisation is still going to have to grapple with the major problem of materialism and growth on a finite planet. Not to mention the climate crisis. Only a concerted global effort to stop making and using so much stuff will save humanity. The influence of materialism on everyone all over the world, especially as they have been denied it by the West, is too strong I fear.
Added to the problem is Evangelicalism and it's "wealth means you are closer to God" and you are saved by some guy calling himself a pastor and reading from the revised bible, given free when he becomes a pastor. The revised "reference bible" first published in 1900, that makes all the claims the zionists dictated to a convicted criminal on his conversion to Judaism, and is now used as the excuse for killing Palestinians while stealing the land they finally decided out if all their shopping around, they could steal Palestine, the country without a standing army, so with the least hope of fighting back.
Once apon a time people happily used barter to survive and it worked well until someone, who would later start a bank, devised money should be the favoured exchange between us. There was a trial started again where we could exchange things or tasks with expach other then employers sided with the banks and started paying wages/ salaries directly into bank accounts so everyone needed to open an account that allowed this, and we know where it went from there...
This statement is 100% Correct. For years I've come to that conclusion, but was holding out hope that it might change but sadly it has only got worse and getting even more so .They don't listen to the people anymore they just do whatever they want because the powers that be has grown more bold arrogant, as they seize and restrict the right of the people, who really has no power to stop them. I never thought I would live to see the day where America is fully and without shame supporting a Genocide of Powerless Humans, where pleading and begging to stop the Genocide is now seen as unpatriotic and a Crime .Western civilization has now really now gone fully over to the DARK SIDE and they don't care and seem mighty proud of it. It has become a Morally and Spiritually Bankrupt entity
I have heard a story, which is perhaps a myth, that Mohatma Ghandi, when asked what he thought about Western Civilization, responded by saying that he thought it would be a good idea. I do not know if that actually happened, but it such a perfect answer that I resist finding out if it is truth or myth. In fact, there is nothing civilized about "the West" at all. In fact, "the West" was built on aggression, colonialism and genocide, which is to say raw power. That is the opposite of civilized behavior. The colonialists manufactured the myth of "Western Civilization" via propaganda which said that those being conquered were incapable of governing themselves and that, by providing "leadership" (which usually meant the slaughter of anyone in the conquered country who opposed the takeover of their country), the conquering country would improve the lives of the conquered by "civilizing" them. My Country, the US, has now truly exposed its true colors by supporting, in fact, enabling, the genocide of the Palestinians. Those who know US history should not find this surprising since the US was only able to expand its territory westward by conducting the genocide of the American Indians. The US is now a rogue state which routinely violates international law and our own Constitution. Those holding high positions in our government are mostly ignorant of even our own history and certainly ignorant of world history. Moreover, they are totally corrupt and self-serving. They have no interest in diplomacy. They are in government to steal as much money as possible. Otherwise, they serve no purpose at all.
Depends what you mean by Western Civilisation. It’s an amorphous collection of ideas. There are some great aspects to Western Civ - innocent before proven guilty, anti-slavery, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and a lot more.
No one actually decides how society will be. We don’t steer the ship. Caitlin always appears to be hoping for some kind of mass awakening, some elevation of consciousness in the masses. Well … that would be nice but given the titanic forces of capitalism/consumerism, propaganda, law and societal pressures it seems unlikely. LSD in the water supply?
Those "qualities" are merely used as propaganda for several reasons, the main two, imo,
1. To give the whites a feeling of supremacy.
2. To denigrate the global south, in order to portray them as inferior, lesser humans, and therefore only fit for exploitation.
Both of these come together to be used to gain consent to go to war.
Borell the Gardener spelled it out publicly.
"Josep Borell, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, compared Europe to a garden – and most of the world to a jungle – in a speech at the European Diplomatic Academy in Bruges, Belgium.
“Europe is a garden. We have built a garden… The rest of the world… is not exactly a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle. The jungle could invade the garden. The gardeners should take care of it”
In plain speech from the top of Europe, Borell calling for the Global South to be "cut back like weeds encroaching on the white paradise".
Not all civilisations are equal. The accomplishments of the White man are numerous. I think we have a lot to be proud of. What have the Romans ever done for us? Borell sounds like he was onto something.
All those things that you mention as positive in Western civilization are applied selectively and thus fake. West is a supremacist mafia-style kakistocracy. Freedom of speech, anti-slavery, etc. - you must be kidding!
Native culture of Tibet, before Han takeover. Dalai Lama, etc. The full opposite of the military-industrial-congressional complex, which NEEDS the next "threat," the next War, until the Final Conflagration (coming soon).
How is the Dalai Lama any different from the Pope? How is Tibetan Buddhism any better or different than Roman Catholicism ... Except that the latter is the authentic culture of your ancestors while the former is just an illusion seen through an Orientalist lens.
You cannot be serious, look at the crimes of child rape by priests and the cover-ups and moving them around that still goes on. My carer is buddhist, every time she enters my home she brings sunshine in her smile, she is a fun person, nothing is too much trouble. When I give her things because they don't work for me, she brings something that will on her next visit, she drove me to a hospital appointment on her day off, I did not ask her to, but so glad she did because I was in shock when told I needed surgery and she was soon supportive to me and got me through that day. The one I had before was more interested talking about herself, in fact she never stopped, could I get a word in? No way. I asked, no demanded, she not come back then got my present one and she is wonderful.
The monks killing the Rohingya in Myanmar are Buddhist. The Japanese kamikaze were Buddhist. Thai monks selling drugs and involved in sex scandals are Buddhist. What's your point. A tiny minority of Catholic priests were involved in child abuse, which is found everywhere in every culture.
"We don’t need to rescue western civilization from outside forces, we need to rescue ourselves from western civilization."
It's imperative Westerners escape their abusive relationship with their culture, ASAP. Western civilization will destroy the entire planet if it continues much longer. It cares not for wildlife or clean water. It cares not for helping its neighbors. It wants only one thing: profits over people and planet. Time to shut it down for good!
What is "Western civilization" if it's not a culture that perpetuates the idea that profits are infinitely more important than living things? The two words are synonymous, IMO.
TRC, it is not 'the culture', it is the 'economic and political' system of Capitalism. You will observe the SAME effects in other Capitalist countries (to different extents based on the variety and stage of capitalism).
Profits (and the need to maximize profits and growth at any costs) is a direct consequence of Capitalism, not a 'cultural' by product. This is the same in Asia, Africa, North America, Middle-East, Europe, everywhere Capitalism reigns supreme.
Chang yes but at some point the political-economic system infiltrates and becomes a prevailing culture. It is a parasitic system. All other values are forgotten and replaced by infinite greed and search of profit. Just look at the West today. It is a blob that eats itself from inside. It is inhumane and unsustainable. As an inherently structurally unstable system it will self-destruct or be destroyed by a better system.
Nick, I observe the SAME effects in non-western cultures too. The economic system affects the culture and the culture affects the economic system - both of them influence each other.
Having lived in other cultures (besides the West), I can attest to so many things that are common in these cultures (and some things that are different).
I'm not defending 'Western culture' here, I'm simply saying that it is not easy to define 'what exactly' is unique to ONLY Western culture (genocide happens in multiple cultures - Sudan, Armenia, Myanmar - Rohingya, etc, profits and exploitation is global, imperialism has been practiced by multiple cultures - Japanese, Middle-Eastern, Russian, Chinese, Eastern European, etc., racism is prevalent in multiple cultures as is colorism, women and children are exploited in multiple cultures - patriarchy, etc.).
I understand. I also lived in many places. And while no human made system will ever be perfect, or even close to it, the genocidal evil western culture is the worst of all. Cannot stand their fake humanity, hypocrisy, "democracy", lies, cheats,
supremacist racist ideology and posture. shitsrael is their creation and that also tells me everything about the western "civilization".
Why would any sane person want this to continue? The usual response is that there is no alternative. And many people do, in fact, believe it — or, out of fear of the unknown, come to believe it.
Yes there are alternatives. All better. This is western propaganda that there are no alternatives making themselves irreplaceable. BS. Western civilization is not only not worth saving but it must be discarded if the humanity is to survive. So there is NO alternative but to get rid of western zionist genocidal system forever. Will be remembered in the history books as the darkest and ugliest period of humanity.
Yes, Caitlin, when profit for the few takes precedence over everything else, when the politics are determined by the power of the strongest (power through deterrence), then there is no longer any room for humanism and ecology. No longer any room for people like Greta Thunberg, you, or me. We are ridiculed as left-wing, anti-Semitic crackpots and supporters of terrorists. That is the narrative. With the full backing of the Western media.
Unfortunately, there is no powerful international counter-movement that would be supported by China, for example. They, too, are now only concerned with Western-adapted values.
Well a lot of you *are* left-wing crackpots with very muddled ideas about history and culture and how the world works. You probably do the Palestinian cause more harm than good by conflating it with a bunch of irrelevant extremist causes like the trans cult for example.
The reason western civilization exists as it does is because the empire is run by a very small minority. Probably even smaller than an oligarchy. What the empire either doesn't care to realize or is oblivious to is that its actions will ultimately destroy itself. These things like genocide and ecocide will wipe humanity out, all of us. We have over 8 billion people and one species, ours, controls all the resources of the entire planet...why isn't there enough for everyone? So very few have more than half the world's population combined... This is by design and why the empire must be stopped.
Such an important point! So many people are frustrated, hungry, homeless, feeling isolated. What kind of a civilization does that to its citizens?
Western "civilization" was never a civilization but parasitic fascist zionist genocidal dystopian cult of supremacist a$$holes.
I have been wondering that too, Diana. I have been wondering how so many humans have become this way. It is not how we are born. Look at a baby. They are all perfect. When my son was born, someone said to me that babies are born perfect and then the rest of their lives, we spend trying to ruin them. We teach them that money trumps all: nature, justice, kindness to others. How do we stop this?
Diana, unfortunately 'frustrated,hungry,homeless' are not features of only 'Western civilizations' - it is present in many civilizations/cultures.
On the 'isolated' thing, I tend to agree with you (based on my personal experience of living in several cultures - but then again, it could be just my personality).
We must stop equivocating. True 'every culture'. However, Western culture enjoys seeing the Other suffer.....that is not the same.
Been to India lately?
India has become the most unequal society in the world (https://visionias.in/blog/current-affairs/india-equality-paradox-world-bank-places-india-among-worlds-most-equal-societies), with the most brutal form of neoliberal capitalism (yes, worse than that of many Western nations).
Another ref: Why India Is Now the World’s Most Unequal Society | Modi’s India Documentary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8mxq83M7rw)
Things got much worse in India as it got friendly with the west and zionist shitsrael. Now you see the results.
You're definitely right about that. India began its neoliberal journey in the early 90s (about the same time as when the Cold War ended and the dissolution of the Soviet Union). Russia too was badly impacted by Western neoliberal Capitalism.
Doesn't that title belong to Israel and its apartheid state and the treatment of the indigenous population of Palestine, while lying about its ancestry in order to build towards its world rule?
If anyone place deserves tgat distinction, surely it's zionist Israel?
Apartheid inequality is different from non-apartheid inequality. For example, even the U.S. has a form of apartheid inequality (you have likely heard the term Jim Crow South). Same in the case of apartheid South Africa.
The inequality in India is across the board (all religions/peoples) and is based on the system of neoliberal capitalism (not racism). There has always been inequality in India (eg. caste system, dalits, and more recently Muslims and immigrants), but ever since Modi (and his BJP party) came into power, inequality in the country has ramped up significantly.
True. But no doubt all the self-hating dorks on here will find a way to blame “Western civilisation” for this as well.
Ohhhh right the wonderful western civilization that gives us new iPhone models every year for a small price of producing constant wars, killing millions, and destroying Earth while bringing misery to all. No human system will ever be perfect but western civilization is pure evil.
I don’t why I’m wasting my time arguing with idiots on Substack, but here goes anyway … You do realise (or maybe you don’t) that Western civilisation has a 10,000 year history during which time it has interacted with and been influenced by many other civilisations?
You seem to be confusing “capitalism” with “Western civilisation”.
10,000 years old western civilization? Didn't know that Germany, France, UK, US, etc. are in Africa.
Give us just one example of a better civilisation. Shouldn’t be too hard if your self-hating BS were correct.
Are you seriously suggesting that only western civilisation has conducted wars, killed millions and exploited resources?
Many better human systems existed but the aggressive genocidal evil western system destroyed them in its pursuit of world dominance and insatiable materialism.
Yes the supremacist judeo-nazi western civilization has introduced mass killing, cheating and stealing
on industrial scale. No one else comes close.
Good on you,Nick Douglas!
Many times? What's your point?
Who is "we"? The workers of the West have been and are oppressed too. It is the capitalist ruling class that has despoiled the planet. To blame the oppressed as well as the oppressers, to ignore the realities of class exploitation, only furthers confusion and despair. Liberalism has failed. The goal of Socialism is the liberation of the global working class. That is worth saving indeed.
Comrade... You can't save something you've never had. There has never been a liberated global working class, and no government of the west is socialist. So while your position is valid, it's not an argument against Johnstone's point so much as it is an exposition of what you'd like to replace our current western civilization with.
These dumbarses can't distinguish between capitalism and "western civilisation".
Western philosophy is unfortunately not the only civilization that needs a complete overhaul of its dysfunctional issues. The malaise is an international condition and can be readily ldentified by the absolute international silence of the Gaza genocide.
At present, there are about 12,000 nuclear warheads awaiting launching orders., yet, if anyone reading these posts has even mentioned the greatest threat ever faced by our species in the past year, hats off to you because the international silence is absolute.
“This civilization is genocidal. Ecocidal. Omnicidal. Imperialist. Racist. Dehumanizing. Degrading. Dystopian. Emotionally stunted. Culturally vapid. Spiritually impoverished.” Three more: Supremacist, Colonial, and therefore apartheid(al). The first makes the last two impossible to confess. “I can’t be narcissistic, I am perfect.” THE Judaeo Christian motto.
I was just thinking today that there is an ethic on the part of rightwing Christians (and probably Zionist Jews) in which they equate their religious affiliation with virtue, and thus think they needn't bother about morality.
They needn’t be rightwing nor zionist. The assumption being exposed right now is that Judaeo Christianity is the apex, the best of the best. But London Bridge is falling down…. all at once.
I have trouble seeing zionist Jews as anything much when their rabbis are telling them rape of children is a blessing - as long as the child has had their third birthday - how very generous told off that long to pierce that little body by an adult male's penis, when we know that rape at any age is torture - ask any adult female who has been raped, if she thought rape a blessing or a curse, especially when it was multiple heinous bastards enjoying the act?
Western civilization, as represented by Voltaire and the finest minds of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, is definitely worth saving..It's the best this planet has produced...There is no substitute...but the cracks that started appearing in the late 19th and were depicted by writers like Dostoevsky, Kafka, Camus and Chesterton have mutated into an oligarchy that needs perpetual war to flourish...Either we get rid of that oligarchy and its promoters, or they will s destroy civilization as we know it and replace it with tech feudalism....
The Chinese, the Arabs, India also had great civilisations.
The warmongering whites went out and "civilized" them through military supremacy.
That's how the west became rich and developed.
Ever heard of Genghis Khan, the Huns, the Muslim invasions, the Turks, American Indian tribes slaughtering each other and taking territory... This is **human** history, these are **human** failings, not simply "western" or "white" failings ... You dumb fucks.
A typical response from a US knuckle dragger.
Unable to construct a coherent sentence, let alone an argument, a list of "whatabouts" is spewed out, followed by an insult, usually with a "fuck" thrown in.
Typical clueless moron with nothing to say so they attack your grammar instead (which is just fine BTW) What makes you think I'm in the US you clown?
Dirty mouth blocked.
And he talks about supremacy from others 🤣
Michael Hall, please apply your insults - 'you dumb fucks' - to yourself.
The apex of western endeavors has been to perfect ways of killing each other and/or destroying the planet altogether.
Famous quote from Gandhi (from 1931, at a conference in England)
Interviewer: "What do you think of Western civilization?"
Gandhi: "I think it would be a very good idea."
That quote is FALSELY attributed to Gandhi.
More info: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/23/good-idea/
Doesn't negate the meaning, though.
👏👏This is to you Carolyn L Zaremba!
I wasn't born until 1940, so didn't hear him say it when it was apparently said, however I remember quite well seeing it on an old Pathe News item where he said, it and it stuck in my mind. And I do not mean from the film after his death. It was about when he visited the textile companies and the workers cheered him on.
Who says it (especially when it is from a historically important personality) matters greatly.
Loved Gandhi, way back I was asked who did I most admire in history. Surprised them when I said Gandhi, a man of principles, and who stuck to them.
If only we had a Gandhi as a leader in each country, what a glorious difference it would make to the world, in so many ways.
Just imagine how much better off we'd all be living under the Indian caste system.
You mean unlike the wealth is not only good (for us)it means we get to be top dogs and avoid paying tax, that system?
Something like that. With intergenerational poverty built into our genes.
Always was, but "should" never had anything to do with it.
This ever always only was a question of power. Nothing more.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Also, corruptible people seem to be more attracted to power too.
Power is a drug that some people are more addicted to.
True!
Check this book out if you have the time: "Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How it Changes Us" by Brian Klass (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59220130-corruptible)
AND/OR this YouTube video->Why do we get the wrong leaders? Brian Klaas at Science and Cocktails (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Oab42VZRE) and "Why psychopaths rise to power | Brian Klaas" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpyIZ4DGIK8)
ALL power is corrupt. No exceptions.
I was going to reply to your previous post about the elites vs the working classes being a romanticised and out-dated concept. But you seem to be rightly including us all; the enormous western middle classes, we also fly around (if only on commercial flights) and surf on the labour of the serfs.
The modern day serfs or working classes, who work in shops, delivery, slaughter houses, meat packing and anything that can't be automated, are First Nation people in the colonies, immigrants to Western countries from formerly colonised and stolen from countries, and factory workers in neo-colonised countries where unions are suppressed to keep them poor and goods cheap.
Opposing capitalism can't be separated from opposing colonisation.
The rise of the middle classes in the Global Majority is squeezing the western middle class but we still have pretty luxurious lives.
A revolution would involve decolonisation and a massive decline in the Western economy and the material wealth of the middle class. We may protest about Palestine but our inevitable impoverishment with the growth of mulitpolarity isn't going to be so popular.
The multipolar world without Western civilisation is still going to have to grapple with the major problem of materialism and growth on a finite planet. Not to mention the climate crisis. Only a concerted global effort to stop making and using so much stuff will save humanity. The influence of materialism on everyone all over the world, especially as they have been denied it by the West, is too strong I fear.
Added to the problem is Evangelicalism and it's "wealth means you are closer to God" and you are saved by some guy calling himself a pastor and reading from the revised bible, given free when he becomes a pastor. The revised "reference bible" first published in 1900, that makes all the claims the zionists dictated to a convicted criminal on his conversion to Judaism, and is now used as the excuse for killing Palestinians while stealing the land they finally decided out if all their shopping around, they could steal Palestine, the country without a standing army, so with the least hope of fighting back.
Once apon a time people happily used barter to survive and it worked well until someone, who would later start a bank, devised money should be the favoured exchange between us. There was a trial started again where we could exchange things or tasks with expach other then employers sided with the banks and started paying wages/ salaries directly into bank accounts so everyone needed to open an account that allowed this, and we know where it went from there...
It's baked in at this point and very little pushback.
This statement is 100% Correct. For years I've come to that conclusion, but was holding out hope that it might change but sadly it has only got worse and getting even more so .They don't listen to the people anymore they just do whatever they want because the powers that be has grown more bold arrogant, as they seize and restrict the right of the people, who really has no power to stop them. I never thought I would live to see the day where America is fully and without shame supporting a Genocide of Powerless Humans, where pleading and begging to stop the Genocide is now seen as unpatriotic and a Crime .Western civilization has now really now gone fully over to the DARK SIDE and they don't care and seem mighty proud of it. It has become a Morally and Spiritually Bankrupt entity
I have heard a story, which is perhaps a myth, that Mohatma Ghandi, when asked what he thought about Western Civilization, responded by saying that he thought it would be a good idea. I do not know if that actually happened, but it such a perfect answer that I resist finding out if it is truth or myth. In fact, there is nothing civilized about "the West" at all. In fact, "the West" was built on aggression, colonialism and genocide, which is to say raw power. That is the opposite of civilized behavior. The colonialists manufactured the myth of "Western Civilization" via propaganda which said that those being conquered were incapable of governing themselves and that, by providing "leadership" (which usually meant the slaughter of anyone in the conquered country who opposed the takeover of their country), the conquering country would improve the lives of the conquered by "civilizing" them. My Country, the US, has now truly exposed its true colors by supporting, in fact, enabling, the genocide of the Palestinians. Those who know US history should not find this surprising since the US was only able to expand its territory westward by conducting the genocide of the American Indians. The US is now a rogue state which routinely violates international law and our own Constitution. Those holding high positions in our government are mostly ignorant of even our own history and certainly ignorant of world history. Moreover, they are totally corrupt and self-serving. They have no interest in diplomacy. They are in government to steal as much money as possible. Otherwise, they serve no purpose at all.
Depends what you mean by Western Civilisation. It’s an amorphous collection of ideas. There are some great aspects to Western Civ - innocent before proven guilty, anti-slavery, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and a lot more.
No one actually decides how society will be. We don’t steer the ship. Caitlin always appears to be hoping for some kind of mass awakening, some elevation of consciousness in the masses. Well … that would be nice but given the titanic forces of capitalism/consumerism, propaganda, law and societal pressures it seems unlikely. LSD in the water supply?
Those "qualities" are merely used as propaganda for several reasons, the main two, imo,
1. To give the whites a feeling of supremacy.
2. To denigrate the global south, in order to portray them as inferior, lesser humans, and therefore only fit for exploitation.
Both of these come together to be used to gain consent to go to war.
Borell the Gardener spelled it out publicly.
"Josep Borell, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, compared Europe to a garden – and most of the world to a jungle – in a speech at the European Diplomatic Academy in Bruges, Belgium.
“Europe is a garden. We have built a garden… The rest of the world… is not exactly a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle. The jungle could invade the garden. The gardeners should take care of it”
In plain speech from the top of Europe, Borell calling for the Global South to be "cut back like weeds encroaching on the white paradise".
Not all civilisations are equal. The accomplishments of the White man are numerous. I think we have a lot to be proud of. What have the Romans ever done for us? Borell sounds like he was onto something.
He must have been a zionist Jew, no one feels more superior than them.
All those things that you mention as positive in Western civilization are applied selectively and thus fake. West is a supremacist mafia-style kakistocracy. Freedom of speech, anti-slavery, etc. - you must be kidding!
Yeah I know but the idea is good.
The alternatives are so much better, but you can't name a single one!
You obviously have no idea how bad life was for ordinary Tibetan people under the Lamas.
Native culture of Tibet, before Han takeover. Dalai Lama, etc. The full opposite of the military-industrial-congressional complex, which NEEDS the next "threat," the next War, until the Final Conflagration (coming soon).
How is the Dalai Lama any different from the Pope? How is Tibetan Buddhism any better or different than Roman Catholicism ... Except that the latter is the authentic culture of your ancestors while the former is just an illusion seen through an Orientalist lens.
You cannot be serious, look at the crimes of child rape by priests and the cover-ups and moving them around that still goes on. My carer is buddhist, every time she enters my home she brings sunshine in her smile, she is a fun person, nothing is too much trouble. When I give her things because they don't work for me, she brings something that will on her next visit, she drove me to a hospital appointment on her day off, I did not ask her to, but so glad she did because I was in shock when told I needed surgery and she was soon supportive to me and got me through that day. The one I had before was more interested talking about herself, in fact she never stopped, could I get a word in? No way. I asked, no demanded, she not come back then got my present one and she is wonderful.
The monks killing the Rohingya in Myanmar are Buddhist. The Japanese kamikaze were Buddhist. Thai monks selling drugs and involved in sex scandals are Buddhist. What's your point. A tiny minority of Catholic priests were involved in child abuse, which is found everywhere in every culture.
And there are no doubt many wonderful Catholic carers out there as well.
Your carer sounds wonderful, you are fortunate to have her. But she's only one person, there are plenty of "Buddhist" child abusers out there as well
"We don’t need to rescue western civilization from outside forces, we need to rescue ourselves from western civilization."
It's imperative Westerners escape their abusive relationship with their culture, ASAP. Western civilization will destroy the entire planet if it continues much longer. It cares not for wildlife or clean water. It cares not for helping its neighbors. It wants only one thing: profits over people and planet. Time to shut it down for good!
Western civilization does not do this. Capitalism does.
What is "Western civilization" if it's not a culture that perpetuates the idea that profits are infinitely more important than living things? The two words are synonymous, IMO.
TRC, it is not 'the culture', it is the 'economic and political' system of Capitalism. You will observe the SAME effects in other Capitalist countries (to different extents based on the variety and stage of capitalism).
Profits (and the need to maximize profits and growth at any costs) is a direct consequence of Capitalism, not a 'cultural' by product. This is the same in Asia, Africa, North America, Middle-East, Europe, everywhere Capitalism reigns supreme.
Chang yes but at some point the political-economic system infiltrates and becomes a prevailing culture. It is a parasitic system. All other values are forgotten and replaced by infinite greed and search of profit. Just look at the West today. It is a blob that eats itself from inside. It is inhumane and unsustainable. As an inherently structurally unstable system it will self-destruct or be destroyed by a better system.
Nick, I observe the SAME effects in non-western cultures too. The economic system affects the culture and the culture affects the economic system - both of them influence each other.
Having lived in other cultures (besides the West), I can attest to so many things that are common in these cultures (and some things that are different).
I'm not defending 'Western culture' here, I'm simply saying that it is not easy to define 'what exactly' is unique to ONLY Western culture (genocide happens in multiple cultures - Sudan, Armenia, Myanmar - Rohingya, etc, profits and exploitation is global, imperialism has been practiced by multiple cultures - Japanese, Middle-Eastern, Russian, Chinese, Eastern European, etc., racism is prevalent in multiple cultures as is colorism, women and children are exploited in multiple cultures - patriarchy, etc.).
I understand. I also lived in many places. And while no human made system will ever be perfect, or even close to it, the genocidal evil western culture is the worst of all. Cannot stand their fake humanity, hypocrisy, "democracy", lies, cheats,
supremacist racist ideology and posture. shitsrael is their creation and that also tells me everything about the western "civilization".
This is now dominant. But when I was a boy it was different.
Love it. We all need to be rescued from the sick cancerous western "civilization".
Rescued by who? You?
Why would any sane person want this to continue? The usual response is that there is no alternative. And many people do, in fact, believe it — or, out of fear of the unknown, come to believe it.
Yes there are alternatives. All better. This is western propaganda that there are no alternatives making themselves irreplaceable. BS. Western civilization is not only not worth saving but it must be discarded if the humanity is to survive. So there is NO alternative but to get rid of western zionist genocidal system forever. Will be remembered in the history books as the darkest and ugliest period of humanity.
Name one alternative
Yes, Caitlin, when profit for the few takes precedence over everything else, when the politics are determined by the power of the strongest (power through deterrence), then there is no longer any room for humanism and ecology. No longer any room for people like Greta Thunberg, you, or me. We are ridiculed as left-wing, anti-Semitic crackpots and supporters of terrorists. That is the narrative. With the full backing of the Western media.
Unfortunately, there is no powerful international counter-movement that would be supported by China, for example. They, too, are now only concerned with Western-adapted values.
WE NEED A FUNDAMENTAL REVOLUTION. NOW!
Well a lot of you *are* left-wing crackpots with very muddled ideas about history and culture and how the world works. You probably do the Palestinian cause more harm than good by conflating it with a bunch of irrelevant extremist causes like the trans cult for example.
Fuck you, bot!🖕✌️🇵🇸
The reason western civilization exists as it does is because the empire is run by a very small minority. Probably even smaller than an oligarchy. What the empire either doesn't care to realize or is oblivious to is that its actions will ultimately destroy itself. These things like genocide and ecocide will wipe humanity out, all of us. We have over 8 billion people and one species, ours, controls all the resources of the entire planet...why isn't there enough for everyone? So very few have more than half the world's population combined... This is by design and why the empire must be stopped.